Introduction

When we last spoke with Roland Griffiths, PhD, in the fall of 2021, psychedelic-assisted therapies were just beginning to enter the mainstream public consciousness, as WebMD explored with the help of Griffiths in an in-depth series. Magic mushrooms, MDMA, and the promise of psychedelic-assisted therapy. For Griffiths, a psychopharmacologist and elder statesman of psychedelic research, it was a very rewarding time in both his professional and personal life. The psychedelic substances he had been studying in the lab for two decades were finally being taken seriously as medications that could help people with specific mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. His personal relationships with those closest to him were good, and his primary relationship with his life partner, Marla, was a source of great meaning and sustenance.

Then, just a few months after our conversation, doctors diagnosed Griffiths with end-stage colon cancer. He had every reason to be resentful and angry, as he had been careful with his health and followed doctors’ orders regarding screenings.

A New Perspective

Griffiths knew the potentially devastating psychological toll of such a diagnosis through his previous, first-of-its-kind research into psychedelic therapies for people with end-stage cancer. And yet, after the initial shock and denial that such a diagnosis often entails, he found something else: joy. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude, joy, and love for how I experience the world despite everything,” Griffiths says.

The answer is as much a surprise and a mystery to him as it is to anyone else. And yet, his feeling about his diagnosis has been clear and immaculate. “What a tragedy it would have been,” he says, “if I had been hit by a bus on the way to that cancer screening.”

“I would have missed so many amazing things.”

The diagnosis has changed his priorities in profound ways, Griffiths says, bringing him closer to his loved ones and making him more open about his own experiences with psychedelics, something he had previously been careful to avoid.

“There will be some people who will think that I have not been an objective scientist. I don’t think that’s true because I started working with psychedelics as a skeptic. … Now I have personal experience that I can speak to as well.”

The Psychedelic Experience and Spiritual Well-being

Since the diagnosis, Griffiths also established a professorship at Johns Hopkins University to support world-class research on psychedelic substances “to advance the understanding of well-being and spirituality in the service of promoting human flourishing for generations to come.”

In a conversation with Manish Agrawal, MD, oncologist and psychedelic researcher at Sunstone Therapies, Griffiths and his wife, Marla Weiner, delve into various aspects of psychedelic-assisted therapy, including Griffiths’ diagnosis, his meditation practice, the psychedelic experience, and more.